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NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU vs Qualcomm Adreno 650 vs Qualcomm Adreno 540

NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU

► remove from comparison NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU

The NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU is an integrated graphics card in the NVIDIA Tegra X1 SoC for (mostly Android based) tablets. It is the successor of the Tegra K1 GPU and based on the Maxwell architecture. It offers the same features as the laptop and desktop Maxwell based products like OpenGL 4.5, CUDA 6.0, OpenGL ES 3.1 and DirectX 11.2. The GPU offers 256 shader cores (2 SMMs) and clocks at up to 1000 MHz. The memory interface offers a maximum bandwidth of 25.6 GB/s (2x 32 Bit LPDDR4-3200).

First benchmarks of the Tegra X1 graphics card using GLBench show twice as high scores as the PowerVR GXA6850 in the Apple A8X. Therefore, the X1 should be the fastest GPU for Android based devices that should not struggle with high end Android games in high resolutions.

The improved video part of the SoC is able to en- and decode 4K videos in H.265 according to Nvidia (decoding at 60fps, encoding at 30fps). Thanks to HDMI 2.0 support, the 4K60 material can be transmitted to external displays (2 displays in parallel at max). The integrated dual ISP is able to drive up to 6 cameras (max. 100 MP, 4096 focus points) at once.

The power consumption of the whole SoC should be rather big compared to other ARM based SoCs. Therefore, Tegra X1 based smartphones are unlikely. As the Tegra K1, the X1 will be most likely seen in tablets with good cooling solutions. Similar to the Apple A8X, the Tegra X1 is manufactured in 20nm.

Qualcomm Adreno 650

► remove from comparison Qualcomm Adreno 650

The Qualcomm Adreno 650 is a smartphone and tablet GPU that is integrated within the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, 865+ and 870 SoCs. The chip will be available from early 2020 and will be used mainly in high-end Android devices. The base clock speed of the GPU is 250 MHz and the boost depends on the used SoC. For the 865 it is 587 MHz, the 865 Plus increased to 846 MHz and the 2021 870 reached 670 MHz.

According to Qualcomm, the Adreno 650 GPU offers a 25% improved performance over the Adreno 640, its predecessor, which is integrated into the Snapdragon 855 SoC. The enhanced performance is achieved by the Adreno 650 having 50% more compute units (ALUs) than the Adreno 640. Furthermore, the clock speed of the pixel shaders was also increased by 50%.

The performance in our first benchmarks of a reference system positions itself above the ARM Mali-G76 MP16 and e.g. in 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme even on the top spot. In GFXBench only the Apple A13 GPU is able to best the Adreno 650 (regarding smartphone GPUs).

As a novelty, the GPU driver can be updated in the Android Play Store. Furthermore, some features are running under the Elite Gaming brand (e.g., 144 Hz display support, desktop forward rendering). 

The Adreno 650 supports Vulkan 1.1, DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2.0 FP. Furthermore, games and videos can use HDR10+ and Dolby Vision (with a supported display). The 650 supports 2 displays with up to 4K 60 Hz / QHD+ 144 Hz.

Qualcomm Adreno 540

► remove from comparison

The Qualcomm Adreno 540 is an integrated graphics card in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC for smartphones. It was introduced in early 2017 and can be found in high-end Android smartphones. 

The integrated GPU is based on the optimized architecture of the Adreno 530, but features clearly improved clock speeds (710 versus 624 MHz according to Anandtech) and better thermal stability. This is also thanks to the new 10 nm process the Snapdragon 835 is produced in. In the reference smartphone from Qualcomm, the Adreno 540 is able to beat or perform at a similar level as the fastest smartphone graphics cards on the market (e.g. the ARM Mali-T880MP12, ARM Mali-G71MP8 or Apple A10 GPU). Therefore, it should be perfectly suited for demanding 3D gaming and also mobile VR and 4K displays.

NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPUQualcomm Adreno 650Qualcomm Adreno 540
CodenameErista
ArchitectureMaxwellAdreno 600
Pipelines256 - unified
Core Speed1000 MHz250 - 670 (Boost) MHz710 MHz
Memory Speed3200 MHz
Memory Bus Width64 Bit
Shared Memoryyesyesyes
APIDirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.5DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2
technology20 nm7 nm10 nm
FeaturesCUDA 6.0, OpenGL ES 3.1, AEPOpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, DirectX 12, Vulkan 1.1OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0, DirectX 12
Date of Announcement05.01.2015 04.12.2019 22.03.2017
Adreno 500 Series
Adreno 660
Adreno 650 @ 0.25 - 0.67 GHz
Adreno 690
Adreno 685
Adreno 680
Adreno 644
Adreno 643 @ 0.81 GHz
Adreno 642
Adreno 642L
Adreno 640
Adreno 630
Adreno 620
Adreno 619
Adreno 619L
Adreno 618
Adreno 616
Adreno 612
Adreno 610
Adreno 540 @ 0.71 GHz
Adreno 530 @ 0.62 GHz
Adreno 512
Adreno 510
Adreno 509
Adreno 508 @ 0.65 GHz
Adreno 506 @ 0.65 GHz
Adreno 505 @ 0.45 GHz
Adreno 504 @ 0.45 GHz
CPU in Tegra X1 Maxwell GPUGPU Base SpeedGPU Boost / Turbo
Nvidia Tegra X18 x 2000 MHz? MHz1000 MHz
CPU in Adreno 650GPU Base SpeedGPU Boost / Turbo
Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 5G8 x 2420 MHz, 5 W? MHz670 MHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ (Plus)8 x 2420 MHz, 5 W250 MHz646 MHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8658 x 2420 MHz, 5 W250 MHz587 MHz
min. - max.250 - ? MHz587 - 1000 MHz
CPU in Adreno 540GPU Base SpeedGPU Boost / Turbo
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (8998)8 x 2450 MHz? MHz710 MHz

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy - Adreno 540
0.2 pt (1%)
0.06787 -71%
0.1025 -56%
Qualcomm Adreno 540
0.2337
...
0.2337 0%
max:
33.3 14149%
0%
100%
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics
min: 52816     avg: 56145     median: 57697 (7%)     max: 57922 Points
min: 16794     avg: 53776     median: 56046.5 (6%)     max: 58360 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme Graphics
0 Points (0%)
17290 Points (2%)
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Score
2359 Points (3%)
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
4259 Points (1%)
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Score
min: 451     avg: 452     median: 452 (1%)     max: 453 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
min: 508     avg: 513     median: 513 (1%)     max: 518 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Graphics
0 Points (0%)
17180 Points (2%)
3DMark - 3DMark Sling Shot (ES 3.0) Unlimited
min: 7970     avg: 9563     median: 9684 (42%)     max: 11492 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Sling Shot (ES 3.0) Unlimited Graphics
min: 11617     avg: 13051     median: 12858 (28%)     max: 16809 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited
min: 6960     avg: 8089     median: 8085 (40%)     max: 8975 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited Graphics
min: 8593     avg: 9728     median: 9498 (28%)     max: 11999 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 826     avg: 831     median: 831 (1%)     max: 836 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance GPU
min: 786     avg: 791     median: 791 (1%)     max: 796 Points
GFXBench - GFXBench 5.0 4K Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen
min: 9.7     avg: 9.9     median: 10 (4%)     max: 10 fps
GFXBench - GFXBench 5.0 Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen
min: 18     avg: 21.1     median: 21 (4%)     max: 27 fps
min: 9.3     avg: 9.7     median: 9.7 (2%)     max: 9.9 fps
GFXBench - GFXBench 5.0 Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Offscreen
min: 27     avg: 55     median: 55 (4%)     max: 67 fps
min: 25     avg: 25.6     median: 26 (2%)     max: 26 fps
GFXBench - GFXBench Car Chase Offscreen
min: 24     avg: 27     median: 27 (3%)     max: 30 fps
min: 39     avg: 52.6     median: 51 (6%)     max: 62 fps
GFXBench 3.1 - GFXBench Manhattan ES 3.1 Offscreen
min: 31     avg: 38.5     median: 38.5 (1%)     max: 46 fps
min: 67     avg: 87.2     median: 88 (2%)     max: 103 fps
GFXBench 3.0 - GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan Offscreen
min: 40     avg: 53.5     median: 54 (3%)     max: 65.8 fps
min: 96     avg: 125.1     median: 125 (7%)     max: 151 fps
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 + NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 - GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16
min: 69     avg: 105.4     median: 123 (1%)     max: 124.2 fps
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 + Qualcomm Adreno 650
min: 168     avg: 209.5     median: 206 (2%)     max: 266 fps
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 + Qualcomm Adreno 540
Basemark X 1.1 - Basemark X 1.1 High Quality
min: 38721     avg: 41416     median: 41415.5 (94%)     max: 44110 Points
min: 38752     avg: 38763     median: 38762.5 (88%)     max: 38773 Points
Basemark X 1.1 - Basemark X 1.1 Medium Quality
min: 42460     avg: 43721     median: 43721 (97%)     max: 44982 Points
44696 Points (99%)
Basemark GPU 1.2 - Basemark GPU 1.2 Vulkan Official Medium Offscreen 1080
min: 72.6     avg: 75.5     median: 75 (0%)     max: 78.57 fps
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 GPU OpenCL
2688 Points (1%)
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 GPU Vulkan
2532 Points (1%)
PassMark PerformanceTest Mobile V1 - PerformanceTest Mobile V1 2D Graphics Tests
5215 Points (5%)
54110 Points (54%)
8356 Points (8%)
PassMark PerformanceTest Mobile V1 - PerformanceTest Mobile V1 3D Graphics Tests
3320 Points (6%)
42627 Points (75%)
3409 Points (6%)
Smartbench 2012 - Smartbench 2012 Gaming Index
4497 Points (98%)
Power Consumption - GFXBench Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Offscreen Power Consumption 150cd *
min: 5.18     avg: 8.2     median: 7.6 (3%)     max: 12.7 Watt

Average Benchmarks NVIDIA Tegra X1 Maxwell GPU → 100% n=7

Average Benchmarks Qualcomm Adreno 650 → 485% n=7

Average Benchmarks Qualcomm Adreno 540 → 106% n=7

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Diablo Immortal

Diablo Immortal

2022
low Medium
Adreno 650:
60  fps
ultra Ultra
Adreno 650:
60  fps
League of Legends: Wild Rift

League of Legends: Wild Rift

2020
low
Adreno 650:
60 119 ~ 90 fps
Adreno 540:
60  fps
high
Adreno 650:
60 117 ~ 89 fps
Adreno 540:
60  fps
ultra
Adreno 650:
60 118 ~ 89 fps
Adreno 540:
60  fps
Call of Duty Mobile

Call of Duty Mobile

2020
ultra
Adreno 650:
60  fps
Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact

2020
low
Adreno 650:
60 60 ~ 60 fps
ultra
Adreno 650:
59 60 60 60 ~ 60 fps
Armajet

Armajet

2020
high
Adreno 650:
30 30 30 52 59 60 60 60 60 62 64 85 91 114 117 119 120 ~ 71 fps
PUBG Mobile

PUBG Mobile

2018
low
Adreno 650:
40 40 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 90 90 ~ 61 fps
med.
Adreno 650:
40 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 ~ 58 fps
high
Adreno 650:
30 30 30 30 30 39 40 40 40 40 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 ~ 53 fps
Adreno 540:
40  fps
ultra
Adreno 650:
40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 ~ 40 fps
World of Tanks Blitz

World of Tanks Blitz

2018
low
Adreno 540:
91  fps
high
Adreno 540:
91  fps
Arena of Valor

Arena of Valor

2018
low
Adreno 650:
60 60 62 ~ 61 fps
Adreno 540:
60 62 ~ 61 fps
ultra
Adreno 650:
60 60 61 ~ 60 fps
Adreno 540:
60 61 ~ 61 fps
Shadow Fight 3

Shadow Fight 3

2018
low
Adreno 540:
30 60 ~ 45 fps
high
Adreno 540:
60 60 ~ 60 fps
Battle Bay

Battle Bay

2018
low
Adreno 540:
121  fps
high
Adreno 540:
121  fps
Dead Trigger 2

Dead Trigger 2

2013
high
Adreno 650:
60 60 90 105 142 144 ~ 100 fps
Adreno 540:
55 59 59 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 60 ~ 59 fps
Asphalt 8: Airborne

Asphalt 8: Airborne

2013
low
Adreno 540:
30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 ~ 30 fps
high
Adreno 540:
29 29 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 ~ 30 fps
Asphalt 9: Legends

Asphalt 9: Legends

2013
low
Adreno 650:
30 30 60 60 ~ 45 fps
high
Adreno 650:
30 30 30 30 30 30 30 58 60 60 60 ~ 41 fps
Adreno 540:
29.5  fps
low 1280x720
Adreno 540:
20.4  fps
med. 1366x768
Adreno 540:
14.2  fps
high 1366x768
Adreno 540:
12.6  fps
Real Racing 3

Real Racing 3

2013
high
Adreno 650:
60 144 ~ 102 fps
Adreno 540:
60  fps
Temple Run 2

Temple Run 2

2013
high
Adreno 540:
60  fps
Qualcomm Adreno 650lowmed.highultraQHD4K
Diablo Immortal6060
League of Legends: Wild Rift908989
Call of Duty Mobile60
Genshin Impact6060
Armajet71
PUBG Mobile61585340
Arena of Valor6160
Dead Trigger 2100
Asphalt 9: Legends4541
Real Racing 3102
< 30 fps
< 60 fps
< 120 fps
≥ 120 fps

1
5

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4

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Qualcomm Adreno 540lowmed.highultraQHD4K
League of Legends: Wild Rift606060
PUBG Mobile40
World of Tanks Blitz9191
Arena of Valor6161
Shadow Fight 34560
Battle Bay121121
Dead Trigger 259
Asphalt 8: Airborne3030
Asphalt 9: Legends29.5
BioShock Infinite20.414.212.6
Real Racing 360
Temple Run 260
< 30 fps
< 60 fps
< 120 fps
≥ 120 fps
1
2
3
1
1


2
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5
1


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For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List

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Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)